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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 1,603 records · Page 89

Fusion of Hyperspectral Sounder Products Via Spectral Fingerprinting Methodology

Satellite based measurements of top-of-atmosphere (TOA) spectral radiances in the infrared (IR) region have been in existence for almost two decades and are expected to be continued in the following decades. The data from multiple hyper-spectral IR sounders can therefore be combined to build a long-term data record to further global scale climate trend research. Challenges associated with the fusion of data from different sensors come from the stability and consistency requirement on the climate record. The direct radiance observations from different sounders need to be homogenized by reconciling the differences in calibration, spectral response function (SRF), and spatial-temporal sampling. When geophysical variables derived from radiances measured by different sounders are combined to form long-term climate records, the impacts of any inconsistencies between overlapping measurements on the retrieval must be carefully assessed in order to estimate the uncertainty of the corresponding climate anomalies/trends derived. This paper presents a novel climate fingerprinting methodology and establishes a rigorously-defined inverse relationship that allows us to efficiently evaluate the change in essential climate variables from the change in spectral radiances measured in prescribed spatial and temporal averaging scales. The inverse spectral fingerprinting relationship is constructed based on a unified spectral kernel scheme, providing a direct means for quantifying the potential discontinuity in the derived climate anomalies due to inconsistencies between overlapping measurements. We show in this paper a sample application of using the spectral fingerprinting scheme to derive long-term, global-scale surface temperatures from the Climate Hyperspectral Infrared Radiance Product (CHIRP) and quantify the inter-satellite biases.

Wan Wu↗

A Computationally Efficient Linear Semi-Lagrangian Scheme for the Advection of Microphysical Variables in Cloud-Resolving Models

An efficient semi-Lagrangian (SL) numerical scheme for the advection of positive-definite microphysical variables in cloud-resolving models is proposed. The scheme is a linear combination of SL schemes of the first and second order. The proposed scheme is compared with two high-order, monotonic, nonlinear Eulerian schemes, in two 2D tests. In the first test, advection of a positive scalar field with large gradients is performed within complicated idealized steering flows. In the second test, a hail storm is simulated using the 2D Hebrew University Cloud Model, describing the interactions between 15 size distributions of different microphysical quantities (each distribution is described by 43 mass bins). The proposed scheme is computationally efficient, has a low numerical diffusion and a high level of mass conservation accuracy, and preserves the sum of multiple advected variables as well as the linear relationships between the advected scalar variables. Although the proposed SL scheme is not exactly positive definite, the negative values and their number, which may appear only in the case of very strong gradients, are negligible. The scheme produces results similar to those of nonlinear Eulerian advection schemes while reducing computation time by approximately a factor of 10.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Analysis of Multiple Precipitation Products and Preliminary Assessment of Their Impact on Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS) Land Surface States

Land surface models (LSMs) are computer programs, similar to weather and climate prediction models, which simulate the stocks and fluxes of water (including soil moisture, snow, evaporation, and runoff) and energy (including the temperature of and sensible heat released from the soil) after they arrive on the land surface as precipitation and sunlight. It is not currently possible to measure all of the variables of interest everywhere on Earth with sufficient accuracy and space-time resolution. Hence LSMs have been developed to integrate the available observations with our understanding of the physical processes involved, using powerful computers, in order to map these stocks and fluxes as they change in time. The maps are used to improve weather forecasts, support water resources and agricultural applications, and study the Earth's water cycle and climate variability. NASA's Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS) project facilitates testing of several different LSMs with a variety of input datasets (e.g., precipitation, plant type). Precipitation is arguably the most important input to LSMs. Many precipitation datasets have been produced using satellite and rain gauge observations and weather forecast models. In this study, seven different global precipitation datasets were evaluated over the United States, where dense rain gauge networks contribute to reliable precipitation maps. We then used the seven datasets as inputs to GLDAS simulations, so that we could diagnose their impacts on output stocks and fluxes of water. In terms of totals, the Climate Prediction Center (CPC) Merged Analysis of Precipitation (CMAP) had the closest agreement with the US rain gauge dataset for all seasons except winter. The CMAP precipitation was also the most closely correlated in time with the rain gauge data during spring, fall, and winter, while the satellitebased estimates performed best in summer. The GLDAS simulations revealed that modeled soil moisture is highly sensitive to precipitation, with differences in spring and summer as large as 45% depending on the choice of precipitation input.

Gottschalck, Jon↗

Evaluation of Ten Methods for Initializing a Land Surface Model

Land surface models (LSMs) are computer programs, similar to weather and climate prediction models, which simulate the stocks and fluxes of water (including soil moisture, snow, evaporation, and runoff) and energy (including the temperature of and sensible heat released from the soil) after they arrive on the land surface as precipitation and sunlight. It is not currently possible to measure all of the variables of interest everywhere on Earth with sufficient accuracy and space-time resolution. Hence LSMs have been developed to integrate the available observations with our understanding of the physical processes involved, using powerful computers, in order to map these stocks and fluxes as they change in time. The maps are used to improve weather forecasts, support water resources and agricultural applications, and study the Earth"s water cycle and climate variability. NASA"s Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS) project facilitates testing of several different LSMs with a variety of input datasets (e.g., precipitation, plant type).

Rodell, M.↗

A geometric approach to regulator and tracker design for an aerospace plane

The paper presents a nonlinear design approach drawing from singular perturbations, feedback linearization, and variable structure control, that leads to regulators with automatic gain scheduling which exhibit similar dynamic behavior over the entire flight envelope of the aerospace plane. Additionally, design approach provides for a systematic way to counter disturbance effects as well as modeling uncertainties. The unifying feature of the three nonlinear feedback control methodologies is that they all have a geometric interpretation. First, the translational dynamics are decomposed into reduced-order slow and fast dynamics by way of a formal singular perturbation analysis. After feedback linearization the fast dynamics are robustly stabilized via a variable structure control approach. The slow dynamics are stabilized using conventional proportional-integral compensation based on the nominal slow dynamics. A number of sample command and disturbance responses at opposite ends of the flight envelope are presented for a nonlinear aerospace plane model.

Van Buren, Mark A.↗

A high‐order discontinuous Galerkin approach for physics‐based thermospheric modeling

Abstract The accurate prediction of aerodynamic drag on satellites orbiting in the upper atmosphere is critical to the operational success of modern space technologies, such as satellite‐based communication or navigation systems, which have become increasingly popular in the last few years due to the deployment of constellations of satellites in low‐Earth orbit. As a result, physics‐based models of the ionosphere and thermosphere have emerged as a necessary tool for the prediction of atmospheric outputs under highly variable space weather conditions. This paper proposes a high‐fidelity approach for physics‐based space weather modeling based on the solution of the Navier–Stokes equations using a high‐order discontinuous Galerkin method, combined with a matrix‐free strategy suitable for high‐performance computing on GPU architectures. The approach consists of a thermospheric model that describes a chemically frozen neutral atmosphere in nonhydrostatic equilibrium driven by the external excitation of the Sun. A novel set of variables is considered to treat the low densities present in the upper atmosphere and to accommodate the wide range of scales present in the problem. At the same time, and unlike most existing approaches, radial and angular directions are treated in a nonsegregated approach. The study presents a set of numerical examples that demonstrate the accuracy of the approximation and validate the current approach against observational data along a satellite orbit, including estimates of established empirical and physics‐based models of the ionosphere‐thermosphere system. Finally, a one‐dimensional radial derivation of the physics‐based model is presented and utilized for conducting a parametric study of the main thermal quantities under various solar conditions.

Engineering↗

The Tropical Atlantic Observing System

The tropical Atlantic is home to multiple coupled climate variations covering a wide range of timescales and impacting societally relevant phenomena such as continental rainfall, Atlantic hurricane activity, oceanic biological productivity, and atmospheric circulation in the equatorial Pacific. The tropical Atlantic also connects the southern and northern branches of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation and receives freshwater input from some of the world's largest rivers. To address these diverse, unique, and interconnected research challenges, a rich network of ocean observations has developed, building on the backbone of the Prediction and Research Moored Array in the Tropical Atlantic (PIRATA). This network has evolved naturally over time and out of necessity in order to address the most important outstanding scientific questions and to improve predictions of tropical Atlantic severe weather and global climate variability and change. The tropical Atlantic observing system is motivated by goals to understand and better predict phenomena such as tropical Atlantic interannual to decadal variability and climate change; multidecadal variability and its links to the meridional overturning circulation; air-sea fluxes of CO 2 and their implications for the fate of anthropogenic CO 2 ; the Amazon River plume and its interactions with biogeochemistry, vertical mixing, and hurricanes; the highly productive eastern boundary and equatorial upwelling systems; and oceanic oxygen minimum zones, their impacts on biogeochemical cycles and marine ecosystems, and their feedbacks to climate. Past success of the tropical Atlantic observing system is the result of an international commitment to sustained observations and scientific cooperation, a willingness to evolve with changing research and monitoring needs, and a desire to share data openly with the scientific community and operational centers. The observing system must continue to evolve in order to meet an expanding set of research priorities and operational challenges. This paper discusses the tropical Atlantic observing system, including emerging scientific questions that demand sustained ocean observations, the potential for further integration of the observing system, and the requirements for sustaining and enhancing the tropical Atlantic observing system.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Analytic amplitudes for a pair of Higgs bosons in association with three partons

The pair production of Higgs bosons at the LHC can give information about the triple Higgs boson coupling. We perform an analytic one-loop calculation of the amplitudes for a pair of Higgs bosons in association with three partons, retaining the exact dependence on the quark mass circulating in the loop. These amplitudes constitute the real radiation corrections in the calculation of Higgs boson pair production at next-to-leading order in the strong coupling. The results of an analytic generalised-unitarity computation are simplified via analytic reconstruction in spinor variables. Compact ansätze for kinematic pole residues are iteratively fitted via p-adic evaluations near said poles and subtracted until no pole remains. A new ansatz construction is introduced to minimally parametrise coefficients of amplitudes with multiple massive external legs. The simplified expressions are faster to evaluate than automatic codes and can lead to more stable results near singular regions.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Measurement of total and differential W + W - production cross sections in proton-proton collisions at √s=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector and limits on anomalous triple-gauge-boson couplings

The production of W boson pairs in proton-proton collisions at √s=8 TeV is studied using data corresponding to 20.3 fb -1 of integrated luminosity collected by the ATLAS detector during 2012 at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The W bosons are reconstructed using their leptonic decays into electrons or muons and neutrinos. Events with reconstructed jets are not included in the candidate event sample. A total of 6636 WW candidate events are observed. Measurements are performed in fiducial regions closely approximating the detector acceptance. The integrated measurement is corrected for all acceptance effects and for the W branching fractions to leptons in order to obtain the total WW production cross section, which is found to be 71.1 ± 1.1(stat) -5.0+5.7(syst)±1.4(lumi) pb. This agrees with the next-to-next-to-leading-order Standard Model prediction of 63.2-1.4+1.6(scale)±1.2(PDF) pb. Fiducial differential cross sections are measured as a function of each of six kinematic variables. The distribution of the transverse momentum of the leading lepton is used to set limits on anomalous triple-gauge-boson couplings.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

TPSAS-NF1676L-10726-DND

The principal component radiative transfer model PCRTM (Xu 2006) simulates spectral longwave radiance at a 0.5cm-1 resolution over the wavelengths (50-2760cm-1) using 280 principal components. The CERES product SSF containing CERES field-of-view (FOV) cloud properties based on MODIS pixel information are used as inputs. NASA GMAO(Global Modeling and Assimilation Office)Geos-4 temperature and humidity profiles, as well as SMOBA (Stratosphere Monitoring Ozone Blended Analysis) ozone profiles allow computations for five years (Jan 2001- Dec 2006) of FOV nadir spectral radiance. The approximately twice daily FOV PCRTM simulations along with CERES broadband measurements are time-space averaged to 10deg zonal monthly data. Analysis of monthly seasonal and deseasonalized interannual variability in terms of brightness temperature are presented. Comparison of interannual variability in the portions of the spectrum seen by the AIRS instrument are shown. Comparisons of spectral integrated PCRTM simulations to CERES broadband longwave radiance measurements are made. In order to study the sensitivity of the spatially and temporally averaged TOA spectrum to various atmospheric properties, we perturbed atmospheric and surface temperatures, humidity, cloud height, cloud fraction, and particle size. The sensitivity of the spectrum to these properties depends on region and seasons. Month to month variability of the longwave spectra to these perturbations is 10 to 20% of the global monthly mean perturbation response. In addition, it depends on time period and size of the area used for averaging spectra. In this poster, the magnitude of sensitivity variability and how the sensitivity changes depending on temporal and spatial scale of averaging will be discussed.

Fred G. Rose↗

Forecasting Wind and Solar Generation: Improving System Operations, Greening the Grid

This document discusses improving system operations with forecasting and solar generation. By integrating variable renewable energy (VRE) forecasts into system operations, power system operators can anticipate up- and down-ramps in VRE generation in order to cost-effectively balance load and generation in intra-day and day-ahead scheduling. This leads to reduced fuel costs, improved system reliability, and maximum use of renewable resources.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

An étude on global vacuum energy sequester

Recently two of the authors proposed a mechanism of vacuum energy sequester as a means of protecting the observable cosmological constant from quantum radiative corrections. The original proposal was based on using global Lagrange multipliers, but later a local formulation was provided. Subsequently other interesting claims of a different non-local approach to the cosmological constant problem were made, based again on global Lagrange multipliers. We examine some of these proposals and find their mutual relationship. We explain that the proposals which do not treat the cosmological constant counterterm as a dynamical variable require fine tunings to have acceptable solutions. Furthermore, the counterterm often needs to be retuned at every order in the loop expansion to cancel the radiative corrections to the cosmological constant, just like in standard GR. These observations are an important reminder of just how the proposal of vacuum energy sequester avoids such problems.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Disparities in the Use of Postmastectomy Radiation Therapy for Inflammatory Breast Cancer

Purpose: Although radiation therapy improves locoregional control and survival for inflammatory breast cancer (IBC), it is underused in this population. The purpose of this study was to identify variables associated with the underuse of postmastectomy radiation therapy (PMRT) for IBC. Methods and Materials: Using the 1998 to 2011 National Cancer Data Base, we identified 8273 women who underwent mastectomy for nonmetastatic IBC. We used logistic regression modeling to determine the demographic, tumor, and treatment variables associated with the underuse of PMRT. Results: Although the use of PMRT increased over time, a total of 30.3% of our cohort did not receive PMRT. On multivariate analysis, variables associated with the underuse of PMRT for IBC included the following (all P<.05): Medicare insurance (odds ratio [OR] = 0.70), annual income <$34,999 (<$30,000: OR=0.79; $30,000-$34,999: OR=0.82), cN2 and cN0 disease (cN2: OR=0.71; cN0: OR=0.63), failure to receive chemotherapy and hormone therapy (chemotherapy: OR=0.15; hormone therapy: OR=0.35), treatment at lower-volume centers (OR=0.83), and treatment in the South and West (South: OR=0.73; West: OR=0.80). Greater distance between patient's residence and radiation facility was also associated with the underuse of PMRT (P=.0001). Conclusions: Although the use of PMRT for IBC has increased over time, it continues to be underused. Disparities related to a variety of variables impact which IBC patients receive PMRT. A concerted effort must be made to address these disparities in order to optimize the outcomes for IBC.

62 RADIOLOGY AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE↗

Order-disorder in room-temperature ionic liquids probed via methyl quantum tunneling

Room-temperature ionic liquids are promising candidates for applications ranging from electrolytes for energy storage devices to lubricants for food and cellulose processing to compounds for pharmaceutics, biotransformation, and biopreservation. Due to the ion complexity, many room-temperature ionic liquids readily form amorphous phases upon cooling, even at modest rates. Here, we investigate two commonly studied imidazolium-based room-temperature ionic liquids, 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate and 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide, as well as their mixtures, to demonstrate how the complex interplay between the crystalline and amorphous phases is affected by the processing conditions, such as thermal history, liquid mixing, and applied pressure. We show that quantum tunneling in the cation methyl groups, measured by high-resolution inelastic neutron scattering, can be used to probe the order-disorder in room-temperature ionic liquids (crystalline vs amorphous state) that develops as a result of variable processing conditions.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

A ground-based albedo upper limit for HD 189733b from polarimetry

We present 50 nights of polarimetric observations of HD 189733 in the B band using the POLISH2 aperture-integrated polarimeter at the Lick Observatory Shane 3-m telescope. This instrument, commissioned in 2011, is designed to search for Rayleigh scattering from short-period exoplanets due to the polarized nature of scattered light. Since these planets are spatially unresolvable from their host stars, the relative contribution of the planet-to-total system polarization is expected to vary with an amplitude of the order of 10 parts per million (ppm) over the course of the orbit. Non-zero and also variable at the 10 ppm level, the inherent polarization of the Lick 3-m telescope limits the accuracy of our measurements and currently inhibits conclusive detection of scattered light from this exoplanet. However, the amplitude of observed variability conservatively sets a 99.7% confidence upper limit to the planet-induced polarization of the system of 60 ppm in the B band, which is consistent with a previous upper limit from the POLISH instrument at the Palomar Observatory 5-m telescope. A physically motivated Rayleigh scattering model, which includes the depolarizing effects of multiple scattering, is used to conservatively set a 99.7% confidence upper limit to the geometric albedo of HD 189733b of A{sub g} < 0.40. This value is consistent with the value A{sub g}=0.226±0.091 derived from occultation observations with Hubble Space Telescope STIS, but it is inconsistent with the large A{sub g}=0.61±0.12 albedo reported by Berdyugina et al.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Decentralized Voltage and Power Control of Multi-Machine Power Systems With Global Asymptotic Stability

Maintaining power system stability is becoming urgent due to the large-scale interconnection of power grids and the high penetration of uncertain renewable energy sources. The excitation control and governor control of synchronous generators have been considered as two crucial measures for enhancing the power system stability. However, a major challenge is to simultaneously achieve global asymptotic stability (GAS), voltage regulation (VR), and power regulation (PR) in the excitation and governor control. In this paper, a Lyapunov-based decentralized control (LBC) is proposed to address this challenge. The time-derivative of the Lyapunov function is designed by the feedback control of synchronous generators in order to guarantee GAS. VR and PR are ensured by considering voltage and power deviations as the feedback variables. The simulation results on the New-England ten-machine power system validate the effectiveness of the proposed LBC in improving power system transient stability and simultaneously achieving VR and PR. Although the proportional-integral- and power system stabilizer-based control can also perform VR and PR, the proposed control has much better dynamic performance and can more significantly improve the system transient stability.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Hurricane Maria Puerto Rico Landsat Analysis

Hurricane Maria made landfall as a strong Category 4 storm in southeast Puerto Rico on September 20th, 2018. The powerful storm traversed the island in a northwesterly direction causing widespread destruction. This study focused on a rapid assessment of Hurricane Marias impact to Puerto Ricos forests. Calibrated and corrected Landsat 8 image composites for the entire island were generated using Google Earth Engine for a comparable pre-Maria and post-Maria time period that accounted for phenology. Spectral mixture analysis (SMA) using image-derived end members was carried out on both composites to calculate the change in the non-photosynthetic vegetation (Delta-NPV) spectral response, a metric that quantifies the increased fraction of exposed wood and surface litter associated with tree mortality and crown damage from the storm. Hurricane simulations were also conducted using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) regional climate model to estimate wind speeds associated with forest disturbance. Dramatic changes in forest structure across the entire island were evident from pre- and post-Maria composited Landsat 8 images. A Delta-NPV map for only the forested pixels illustrated significant spatial variability in disturbance, with patterns that associated with factors such as slope, aspect and elevation. An initial order-of-magnitude impact estimate based on previous work indicated that Hurricane Maria may have caused mortality and severe damage to 23-31 million trees. Additional field work and image analyses are required to further detail the impact of Hurricane Maria to Puerto Rico forests. A minor update to this dataset was posted on April 20, 2018. The previous version is being retired. If you need access to the prior version of the data, email ngee-tropics-archive@lbl.gov.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Internal (Annular) and Compressible External (Flat Plate) Turbulent Flow Heat Transfer Correlations.

Here we provide a discussion regarding the applicability of a family of traditional heat transfer correlation based models for several (unit level) heat transfer problems associated with flight heat transfer estimates and internal flow heat transfer associated with an experimental simulation design (Dobranich 2014). Variability between semi-empirical free-flight models suggests relative differences for heat transfer coefficients on the order of 10%, while the internal annular flow behavior is larger with differences on the order of 20%. We emphasize that these expressions are strictly valid only for the geometries they have been derived for e.g. the fully developed annular flow or simple external flow problems. Though, the application of flat plate skin friction estimate to cylindrical bodies is a traditional procedure to estimate skin friction and heat transfer, an over-prediction bias is often observed using these approximations for missile type bodies. As a correction for this over-estimate trend, we discuss a simple scaling reduction factor for flat plate turbulent skin friction and heat transfer solutions (correlations) applied to blunt bodies of revolution at zero angle of attack. The method estimates the ratio between axisymmetric and 2-d stagnation point heat transfer skin friction and Stanton number solution expressions for sub-turbulent Reynolds numbers %3C1x10 4 . This factor is assumed to also directly influence the flat plate results applied to the cylindrical portion of the flow and the flat plate correlations are modified by

42 ENGINEERING↗